


Tattoos

by GealachGirl



Series: The Trouble With Soulmates [7]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Gen Kill Week, I gave Reporter tattoos, M/M, Soulmate AU, and I had a concept, first words your soulmate says, it felt right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 04:19:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12027966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GealachGirl/pseuds/GealachGirl
Summary: Nate has a new idea for how to find his soulmate.





	Tattoos

     Nate Fick hadn’t found his soulmate.

     And until now he hadn’t felt stressed about it. He’d gone through high school and college watching soulmates meet, and he’d never felt like he was somehow lagging behind the rest of the world.

     He was sure it would happen eventually, and his soulmate had to feel the same way. After all, the words on Nate’s ribs said: _Oh thank God_.

     But then Brad had met Ray. Brad, who for his whole life had sworn he would never be with his soulmate and always spouted off about freedom of choice, had found and actually accepted his soulmate.

     And that had messed with Nate’s head.

     “Hey, Fick, pass the pie and choose a goddamn movie already. I can feel my precious youth slipping away,” Ray said from across the room.

     “You have legs, Person,” Poke pointed out.

     “But that only solves one of my problems, Tony.”

     Nate looked over his shoulder to see neither of his friends being useful at all. But Brad and Gina were in the kitchen mixing drinks, so at least it was only half of them.

     “This is your apartment, I don’t know why I’m in charge,” Nate said. He sat back on his heels as the other two brought trays in.

     “Because we’re celebrating the fact that you’re employed,” Ray said. He wiped a mock tear from his eye. “Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, tackling the student loans, and making us all proud.” The fake sob with the hand over his heart completed the performance, and Nate looked at Poke as they both rolled their eyes.

     Brad shot Ray a look, having heard the end of that, before he transferred it to Nate. “Is he being a pain in the ass? I knew I shouldn’t have let him out of the kennel.”

     Ray clearly wanted to respond, but Brad shoved a drink into his hand before he got the chance. He sat down so their sides were pressed together for good measure. And it worked.

     Nate was always surprised by the way they managed each other. He knew it was part of the soulmate bond, but he’d never expected Brad to fit into it so well. It was still hard sometimes to reconcile his anti-soulmate best friend with having Ray, especially since nothing else about him had actually changed.

     That was the thing about the soulmate bond. Everyone had an opinion about it and almost everyone was wrong.

     It was part of why Nate tried not to be jealous.

 

     “Alright then, do you have any questions?”

     Nate and Patterson came to a stop beside Nate’s new desk, and he glanced around the museum library he’d just toured. He was in a corner, but he had windows behind him and the front door and desk were only a few feet away. There were also plants on most surfaces and shelves of books in between. All in all, it could be a worse place to work.

     He couldn’t think of a reason why he’d have questions yet and shook his head.

     “Cool,” Patterson nodded and settled into the seat at the next desk over. “If you do think of anything feel free to let me know.”

     “Will do,” Nate replied. He’d met with his boss last week and he felt good about the job and what he had to do for his first day. It made him think full-time employment might not be too bad.

     And approximately 30 seconds after he sat down, the door to the research office flew open.

     Nate looked up to see a figure dash to the reception desk. The guy set down a stack of papers and leaned forward to speak quickly to the man behind it. Nate couldn’t hear what he was saying, or tell what the papers were, but he did notice the tattoos.

     From what he could see, they covered both of the man’s forearms—a mixture of pictures and words. None were very big, but there were a lot and they wound around each other and around his arms in clean, bold lines. Nate couldn’t look away.

     Tattoos weren’t exactly rare, but they were out of the ordinary. Especially blatant ones in visible places.

     And when the guy turned around with a new stack of papers, something else kept Nate from looking away, but he wasn’t sure what it was. If it was the blue eyes, or the open, observant expression, or something else he couldn’t place.

      The guy skimmed the paper on top of his new stack as he walked back toward the door. But before he left, he happened to turn his head, and to look at Nate.

     He paused mid-step and stayed that way for a few seconds before his face lit up like they were long-time friends. He waved before he went out the door.

     It fell shut and Nate considered his limited options for information before he turned to Patterson. “Who was that? Does he work here too?”

     “Yeah, that was Evan Wright, our part-time page,” Patterson said over the partition. “He’s only been here for a few months, and I’m pretty sure he has an internship at a news outlet in town.”

     “Does he come in here a lot?” Nate tried to decide if seeing more of Evan Wright would be a good thing and still had to come to a conclusion. On the one hand, he was fascinated, but on the other he knew exactly what he was feeling, and he wasn’t sure he should encourage it. It hadn’t ended well yet.

     Patterson shrugged. “It depends what work he has to do. He works in the whole library, so he doesn’t always have work back here. I see him more often than not though.”

     Nate nodded and tried to pretend this information was only mildly interesting to him. But he turned his eyes back to the door and let himself wonder about when he might get a chance to talk to Evan Wright.

 

     It turned out to be no time soon.

     The page did come into the office a lot, but it was usually to the front desk. If it wasn’t, he talked to any of the other researchers and only came close to Nate’s desk to leave. Other than that, he worked in the shelves out in the rest of the library.

     Not that Nate had any ideas for what to say to him. Logically he knew that if they were soulmates, it would be Evan’s words, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of needing to get it perfect. And this was the first time he’d felt it so strongly.

     He’d done the “just approach them and say something” routine too many times to count, and it didn’t work for him. He wanted to be right this time, he wanted it to be Evan, and he wanted his words to be intentional.

     So Nate looked at Evan’s tattoos.

     Forearms were common places for words to show up, and Nate was convinced they were there somewhere. It was just a matter of figuring out which set of text they were.

     Right now the page was at the front desk, getting a request processed for a patron, so Nate had a chance to look and take another sampling.

     On part of Evan’s left arm, Nate saw the words: _What do you have to say?_       

     He tried to fit his voice around the words, mouthing them as he updated a catalog of mythology texts. And Nate imagined why he would say them. Maybe it was in a monthly library meeting and Evan kept getting talked over; or maybe there would be some kind of argument with a patron and Nate would need to step in to help. Or maybe Nate would be confronting him about something, or…

     Maybe, maybe, maybe, and still nothing sounded real enough.

     Another sentence said, _I think you’re right._

     It sounded like something Nate would say and how he would say it, but the possibilities for why seemed endless.

     He always tried to pick sets of words that fit his speech patterns and what he could imagine saying to Evan as an opening line. But it hadn’t gotten him anywhere yet.

     The point was that Nate could only imagine, and the more imagined it got, the more his frustration rose. Because after a point, nothing seemed possible.

     Nate tried to find something else that read the same way he talked. He looked over snippets of other sets of words he’d already considered, and felt even more frustrated at all of the possibilities: _Are you okay?_

_Wait._

_I’m sorry, but I have something to tell you._

     Or maybe it was: _Wait! I’m sorry but I have something to tell you._ Or: _Are you okay? Wait._ Or: _I’m sorry but I have something to tell you. Wait, are you okay?_ Or anything else, using any of the other words scattered over Evan’s arms.

     And it had only taken him a week to get to this point.

     Before Nate could find something new, business at the desk wrapped up and Evan turned around to leave the office.

     He looked annoyed, but when he saw Nate, his eyes brightened and a smile found its way to face as he passed. Nate smiled back and lifted a hand—like always—and he knew he needed to make a decision.

     And he knew the perfect person to help.

    

     During college Brad, Poke, and Nate had made a tradition of pooling their resources and making dinner together at least once a week. When Gina had come along between sophomore and junior year, it had gotten better and more elaborate. And now that they had two more people, it was basically a quality meal.

     Brad and Ray’s apartment had become the gathering place shortly after they’d met. It was bigger and more central than Nate’s or Poke and Gina’s, and Walt still lived on campus, so it was the best hub for get-togethers.

     Since they still did weekly meals, tonight was likely the best time to get the help he wanted. But of course he’d have to wade through a significant amount of bullshit before he got it, and Walt and Gina weren’t there to buffer.

     “Wait, you’re telling me you think you’ve found someone and you’re waiting?” Poke asked. The disbelief was strong in his voice and Nate resisted his desire to put his head in his hands. “Man, that’s the kind of shit you jump on when you think you found it. Let destiny take it from there, dawg.”

     It didn’t help that his friends were happily paired off.

     “You know, homes, I’m gonna have to agree with Poke on this one,” Ray said. He set something down on the table and came around to put a hand on Nate’s shoulder. “What the fuck are you waiting for?”

     And these weren’t even the people he wanted help from. He looked at Brad, hoping for some sympathy, but he only saw the same exasperation Nate felt.

     In the foreground, Nate’s friends continued.

     “Come on, guys. Poke you at least know why,” Nate interrupted, breaking through Ray’s stream of thought.

     Poke stopped and gave him a knowing look. The matching smile followed. “Relax man. How could I have forgotten?”

     “I just want to be right this time. I’m tired of trying and not finding them,” Nate said with a sigh. He rested his elbows on the table and stared at the center piece of beer bottles. “And I don’t know why it’s different this time or why I want it so much. He’s just interesting and I can’t shake this feeling.”

     Poke was a romantic who’d actively kept an eye out for his soulmate, so Nate didn’t expect him to understand this. But Brad and Ray both looked thoughtful.

     “You mean you feel like you need it to be this one, even though you didn’t care that much before?” Ray asked. His voice and expression were muted and Nate was intrigued. He nodded.

     Ray appeared to weigh his words, and he looked at Brad as he delivered them. “You know, that’s pretty much how I felt about the Iceman here,” he finally said. “I was curious all my life about it, but it wasn’t until I saw him across the bar that I actually gave a shit.”

     Everyone in the room got quiet at that, but Brad was the only one who didn’t look surprised.

     “So he got the jukebox working and came over to sing at me,” he said. But the eyeroll was contained to his voice, and the look he gave Ray was infinitely softer.

     “Well I’d just realized then that ‘I’m a man of wealth and taste’ is a song lyric, and I figured I might as well try,” Ray said.      

     “And that’s where I’m stuck,” Nate said, trying to direct them back to the topic. “I have too many options.”

     “The tattoos are weird,” Brad said. “Most artists I’ve ever talked to won’t do text tattoos, or they’ll only do them if you’ve found your soulmate.”

     “I know some guys who’ll do cover-ups,” Ray suggested.

     “Do you think that’s what it is? He’s like the Iceman here and wants to cover up his words?” Poke asked.

     Nate had already worried about that being the case, and he didn’t want to think about it again. But now he wondered if Evan had already met his soulmate.

     Brad seemed to see that worry brewing because he leveled a firm look at Nate that could be interpreted to mean “knock it off.”

     “Do you think going off of his tattoos even makes sense?” Nate asked.

     “Forearms are really common places,” Poke offered.

     “I think you should pick your favorite tattoo and say that one,” Ray said. “Or! You could just read all of them at once, or go up and tell him you like the tattoos and you’re sorry for staring, but they’re just too fucking cool.” And that apparently meant Ray was done being helpful. When Brad closed his eyes, it confirmed it.

     “His words might not even be the first part of the pair,” Brad observed after a few moments.

     “But I don’t know how else we’re going to talk. We’ve never had a face-to-face interaction and ‘Oh thank God’ isn’t a real conversation starter.”

     Brad shrugged.

     “So you’re just going to need to make a decision,” Poke said. “It can’t be too hard. Do you know how long I worried Gina couldn’t possibly be my soulmate? And now we’ve got a baby on the way, all because I talked to her.”

     “Say what you want to say to him,” Brad said, backing Poke up. “Forget about how he might possibly be your soulmate and say the first thing you think of.”

     Nate let out a breath. Hearing his friends say it made that sound like a real solution and less like something Nate could ignore or that he’d made up.

     “Or look for the words that match your font, I don’t know,” Brad suggested.

     The thoughts in Nate’s head stopped spinning for a moment, much like the world around him. “I…hadn’t even thought of that.” Because of course that would be the giveaway, how had he forgotten? And from Brad’s face, Nate could tell he was thinking the same thing.

     He looked at his friends and marveled over them. “Wow, you guys were actually useful,” he observed, still shocked.

     Poke laughed. “Fuck off, Man.” The other two rolled their eyes.

     And Nate smiled at them all.

 

     After another day or two of observation, and being unable to spot the same font his words were in, Nate was ready to finally talk to Evan.

     Except he hadn’t come to the research office today, and the clock kept reminding Nate of that.

     Now that he’d made the decision, he felt like he was sitting on pins, restless, checking the clock and the door and the windows beside the door, because he wanted to finally take action.

     “What has you so distracted?” Patterson asked mildly, eyes on his computer. They’d become good work friends, with their own, silent language when either of their supervisors spoke to them, and Nate was tempted to invite him to a dinner night.

     Nate looked away from the clock. “Do you know where Wright is?”

     “Today’s one of his internship days, so he’s just on the floor for a few hours today,” Patterson said. He turned slowly, and the look in his eyes was suspicious when it landed on Nate. “What do you need him for?”

     Nate stayed silent and debated telling him. Then he thought about all those looks they’d exchanged and what inviting Patterson to dinner would mean. “I need to find out if he’s my soulmate.”

     Patterson blinking was the only sign he was surprised. “I’ll cover Encino Man and Griego for you.”

     Nate beamed, but he didn’t need more encouragement. He was through the door in seconds.

     The floor—where people could walk between the bookshelves, check books out, and sit to read them at the rows of long tables—was packed. Artifacts and displays were sprinkled among the books, because the library was a museum, too, so people were everywhere.

     Nate hoped Evan was just putting books back, or cataloging them in a back room.

     He had to weave through the crowd after he’d made it down the stairs, and he hadn’t appreciated before now how big the library was.

     Nate looked in the main visitor area first, with the tables, and then he made his way slowly outward, combing every set of shelves for bright blue eyes, a gold chain necklace and sleeves of tattoos.

      And that was how he found him, in a denser set of shelves in a corner of the library. Sun filtered through the windows and pooled on the floor and shelves, making everything glow. Meanwhile Evan managed to balance a large box between his leg and a shelf while he reached over his head to put a book in place.

     Nate took a second to look, and to brace himself.

     But the image shattered two seconds later when Evan shifted his weight and the box of books that barely fit on the shelf toppled to the floor. Evan reached out to catch it, but he was a few seconds too late. When it was all over, most of the books were fine, but others had fallen open on their pages. He and Nate both winced.

     “Goddammit,” Evan muttered to himself as he bent down to retrieve them, and that was when Nate thought to step forward.

     The movement caught Evan’s attention and he whirled around, wide-eyed until he saw it was Nate, not Godfather. “Oh thank God,” he breathed, ducking his head.

     A pool of warmth spread through Nate’s chest and excitement buzzed under his skin, but he kept his head as he knelt beside Evan on the floor. He ran his eyes over Evan’s arms, and one set of words jumped out to him. They were exactly what he’d wanted to say.

     He reached out and trailed a finger over the letters as he looked up. “There you are.”

     And Evan’s amazed smile had to match Nate’s own.

 

     Evan shook his head. “Wow, I wouldn’t have pegged you for classic literature,” he said, and Nate beamed.

     “That’s what everyone said,” he replied. “But here I am.” He gestured to the library around him.

     They were in the library’s café after they’d told their managers about the soulmate bond. But even though they had the rest of the day off, neither could think of a better place to talk.

     And talk they did. Nate wasn’t sure how many, but it had to have been hours.

     “So, about the tattoos…” Nate knew where his question was going, but he wasn’t sure how to ask it. It was why he’d waited so long. Luckily, Evan knew too, though he looked a little embarrassed about it.

     “Well,” he turned his left arm over and ran his thumb along the sentence that looked like Nate’s. “It’s not an unusual sentence and they’re in an obvious place, and whatever ammunition bullies can get, you know?” He looked up at Nate again and smiled, like the memories didn’t sting anymore.

     “It wasn’t that bad, and it happens to everyone with obvious words, but the teasing got old,” he continued. “So I wanted to camouflage them, and I was a teenager, and I found an artist who was sympathetic.” He looked over his arms. “And then I guess I just kept collecting them.”

     “I didn’t know artists would do that,” Nate said as he studied the tattoos, thinking of what Brad and Ray had told him.

     “They don’t do cover ups, but this wasn’t really the same thing. It’s clear I do have words—you just can’t tell what they are,” Evan explained. “And since your soulmate doesn’t have to read the words to make the bond work this technically doesn’t break any laws.” His eyes were bright, but the embarrassment was still there.

     Nate felt his ears turn pink. “Well usually they don’t.”    

     His soulmate just laughed, and Nate felt warm again.

 

     A few days had passed before Nate finally decided to take Evan to dinner with his friends, and he was of two minds about it.

     On the one hand, his friends didn't need to be complete assholes. They could let Evan have a stress-free night when he met them. 

      But Nate knew his friends would never do that, and Evan needed to be able to fend for himself. If they were at their worst tonight, it would only help any future relationship with the group run smoothly. 

     Evan had told him stories about his reporting internship, so Nate was confident he could handle whatever shit the guys could throw at him. 

     "So are you ready or are you still worrying?" Evan asked from the passenger seat. They were parked in a guest spot outside of Brad and Ray’s apartment, and Evan was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that showed off his tattoos. Ray and Poke had been bothering Nate for three days about making sure they got to see them, and he’d made sure it happened.

     Not that he was arguing. Nate had them memorized now, but that didn’t stop him from looking.

     "I'm not worrying," Nate protested, but Evan clearly didn't buy it.

     Nate rolled his eyes because he never bought it. "Fine, let's go in.” Evan grinned and made a move for the car door. Nate followed and shut his door slowly, keeping his eyes on the window of Brad and Ray’s apartment. The curtains were drawn and still, so he didn’t think anyone was watching.

     “Wait a second,” he said. When Evan turned to see what he was waiting for Nate put a hand on his shoulder and kissed him.

     It wasn’t quite their first, but Nate still felt like it was. Being this close to his soulmate released a shower of sparks down his spine, and he savored the sensation. Evan was clearly doing the same when he wrapped his fingers around Nate’s wrist.

     “Alright, now I’m ready,” Nate said, smiling. He flipped his wrist around to lace his fingers with his soulmate’s and they walked to the door together.


End file.
